I got Sibelius 4 for Christmas, but I have some questions about it before I decide whether to keep it or to try to return it. The main issues are:- I already have Finale 2002, which is perfectly adequate for writing and printing scores.- I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop as my main computer, and I don't know how good its sound card is, or whether or not the quality of the sound card affects anything.- I have a keyboard, but I haven't been able to get it to interface with my laptop. I think this might be related to my sound card but I really have no idea.- The composing I do is usually by hand on my keyboard, and then I record it via Line In, which results in fairly poor sound quality. The MIDI that I get from Finale sounds really crappy. Therefore the only way to improve the sound quality of my work would be to successfully interface my keyboard and laptop AND to be able to render much higher quality MIDI.- I only compose occasionally and not at all seriously. Although maybe Sibelius 4 would allow me to compose more seriously, I don't really want to.

These issues also bring up a few questions:- Does the sound card have anything to do with the qualty of MIDI produced/produceable?- If so, would getting a better soundcard improve MIDI quality regardless of having Sibelius, or is Finale 2002 too old/rudimentary to allow higher quality MIDI? (My current sound card is Sigma-Tel C-Major Audio.)- When I say MIDI, I assume that any music that is produced by a program is necessarily MIDI. Is this even accurate?- Why won't my damn keyboard interface with my damn laptop?

With all of these issues, I'm really not sure whether it is worth the steep price for the fancy Sibelius 4 for just a casual sometimes-composer. Are the advantages it bestows all-conquering, or should I try to get it returned?

Logged

b]Horatio Caine:[/b] The killer just made his second mistake.Yelena Salas: What was his first?Horatio Caine: Murder.